European court to review 2 Bolotnaya case defendants' petitions

Photo ITAR-TASS

MOSCOW, June 26 (Itar-Tass) - The European court of human rights will review petitions of two defendants in the case over disturbances in Moscow's Bolotnaya Square last May, Vladimir Akimenkov and Yaroslav Belousov, a lawyer said on Wednesday.

"I received a letter which said the ECHR would consider two our complaints; we're expecting the court to give them priority," defendants' lawyer Dmitry Agranovsky told Itar-Tass.

The defendants complained about "inhuman conditions" in pre-trial detention centers, and illegal arrests of Akimenkov and Belousov within the framework of the "Bolotnaya case" probe and their extension.

"We intend to update our complaints pointing out at inhuman conditions during the trial," Agranovsky noted.

The plaintiffs asked the ECHR to commit the Russian Federation to eliminate the violations and pay a compensation of 100,000 euros to each.

Moscow's Zamoskvorechye court began to review the case on Tuesday.

All the defendants pleaded not guilty.

The prosecutor maintained that all of them initially had come to Bolotnaya Square without the intention to stage riots or team up into an organized group.

"At the venue of the public event, the defendants developed a design to participate in mass disturbances and use violence on police," the prosecutor stated.

According to the prosecutor, they had caused material damage worth 29 million roubles.

Defendant Sergei Krivov said he regarded himself as an injured party. "I was hit on the head with a baton, and now the person who hit me is claiming that I hurt him," Krivov said.

The next hearing is due on June 26.

The investigator said the defendants had called for mass disturbances in Moscow's Bolotnaya Square on May 6, 2012, and actively participated in them. They accompanied their actions by the destruction of property and violence against police.

Eighty-two police were injured in the disturbances.

On November 9, 2012, the Zamoskvorechye court sentenced Maxim Luzyanin, a participant in the riot, to four years and six months in prison. Luzyanin had pleaded guilty and signed a plea bargain agreement.

Police are continuing the investigation into the case against suspected masterminds behind the riot - Left Front leader Sergei Udaltsov, his aide Leonid Razvozzhayev and their suspected sponsor - Georgian politician Givi Targamadze.